Thursday, August 20, 2015

Return to Gun Review #16 plus an update to where I've been.

Howdy, folks. It's your old pal 12-Gauge Chimp.

You may have noticed my absence (or not since I'm not sure if anyone actually reads my articles or even visits the site anymore), and I apologize for that. The reason behind my long absence is that I just got burnt out on writing reviews and updating the site. I've purchased a number of things to review and I'll be getting to those some time in the near future.Just to clear things up and answer a few questions I'm sure no one has asked, I buy pretty much everything I review out of my own pocket. I am not sponsored in any way whatsoever. It'd be nice to be sponsored, but the site just isn't big enough nor popular enough for the big name companies to consider a sponsorship.

With that out of the way, on to the updated M10 AK.

As most of you folks know, I am a big fan of the AK and 7.62x39mm round it fires. So much so that I am strongly considering adding another AK to my collection. Before I do that, though, I want to update you all on what I've done to my M10 AK over the past year.

First, I ditched the Hogue handguard that came with my rifle and added a Troy Industries AK rail (more on that later). The Troy Industries AK rail is nice, but it's a little frustrating in installing since it requires a small Allen wrench to tighten down the bolts that hold it to the handguard retaining ring. Loc-Tite is your friend here if you don't want the bolts to back out and cause the rail to wobble (yes, I had that happen to me. Twice.) I recommend the blue Loc-Tite if you ever want to remove the rail and install a different one. If you never want to remove it, either use some of the red Loc-Tite or have your gunsmith weld the rail onto your rifle.

Next was the buttstock. The Phoenix Technologies "Survivor" stock is a decent stock in it's own right, but I wanted something that I could adjust the length of pull (LOP) on. The Phoenix Technologies stock is basically a fixed AK stock with a little trapdoor for survival gear (I tried and all I could fit in it was a cleaning kit. You are definitely NOT fitting any real gear in that stock.) So, I first put an Vltor AK stock tube adapter on it along with a Magpul CTR stock and called it a day. It worked for me and I was happy. Cut to SHOT Show 2015 and Magpul's announcement of AK specific furniture, which had me rethinking my set up. So, a few months of waiting for the stock to hit shelves, I installed my Zhukov-S folding stock on my AK. It actually went on easier than the Vltor tube. Magpul hit one out of the park with this stock. I will say that the LOP adjustment part was a little hard to adjust at first, but now it's smooth. I recommend finding a position that fits you on the stock and setting it there because the stock can be a pain to adjust at times. Maybe Magpul will make a Gen 2 version of the stock that's a little easier to adjust.

I also changed the muzzle brake (I absolutely hated the Tapco Razr muzzle brake that came with my rifle. Sounded like a tuning fork whenever I shot my rifle). I switched the brake out with a Midwest Industries AK muzzle device (I'm not kidding. The package simply calls it a 'muzzle device'. No fancy name, just what it is.) Getting the Tapco Razr brake off my rifle required a trip to a gunsmith and a monkey wrench to take it off. Installing the Midwest Industries brake was just my gunsmith screwing the thing onto my rifle after spraying some lube onto the threads to make everything go on without a hitch. It looks a lot better than the Tapco brake. Don't get me wrong, the Tapco Razr brake was a nice one, it just wasn't for me. And I'm not the only one who disliked it. Take a trip to YouTube and you'll find a bunch of folks who feel the same way as I do about the Tapco Razr.

Other things that I swapped were the grip (went with a Magpul MOE AK grip), gas tube (Troy Industries again.) and I added some rail sections to hold a Magpul AFG (angled fore grip) as well as a Bushnell tactical light and a Magpul QD sling mount.

I'm hoping once the weather cools down a bit, I can hit the range and put some rounds downrange. It's been awhile since I fired my AK and I need to do a lot of testing to see if all the mods I did were worth it.

All in all, I'm happy with the rifle and the mods I did. I made the rifle fit me and I think that's all that matters in the end.

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The 12-Gauge Chimp story

Hello and welcome to 12-Gauge Chimp's blog.
I originally started this site back in 2009 as a way to share my experiences in the world of firearms and knives with the world. I mostly write about guns and knives with the occasional look at places in the industry that I think would appeal to my readers.
Thank you for stopping by my website and I hope you all find something here that you will enjoy.